DoomsdaysCWI'm fascinated by Plato's theories... Could we function without rulers? Or is the solution with folks who have solutions and are thinking about the future without material connections? Hmmmm... Anything is better than the #ShipOfFools!
#Plato on #Democracy, #Tyranny, and the Ideal State
What would Plato have to say about today’s democracies?
Updated June 24, 2024
"Having experienced the limits of both #tyranny and democracy, Plato sought to devise another and better system of government. In the Republic, which in my view is nothing more than a thought experiment, he conceived of an ideal state ruled by a small number of people selected, after close observation and rigorous testing, from a highly educated elite.
"These so-called guardians would not hold any private property. Instead, they would live together in housing provided by the state, and receive from the citizens no more than their daily sustenance. In spite, or because, of these deprivations, the guardians would be the happiest of men. Were a guardian to become ‘infatuated with some youthful conceit of happiness’ and seek to appropriate the state to himself, he would have to 'learn how wisely Hesiod spoke, when he said, ‘half is more than the whole.’
"For Plato, if a person is to give good advice on the highest affairs of state, he or she must have expertise in justice, which is a part of virtue and self-knowledge. The person who rushes into politics without having found self-knowledge falls into error and makes himself and everyone else miserable. He who is not wise cannot be happy, and it is better for such a person to be commanded by a superior in wisdom.
"The #tyrant, who is the most #unjust of people, is also the #unhappiest. The tyrant is constantly overcome by lawless desires which lead him to commit all manner of heinous act. His soul is full of disorder and regret, and is incapable of doing what it truly desires (this is similar to Socrates' notion that a bad person is, in fact, not himself). The life of the political tyrant is even more wretched than that of the private tyrant, first, because the political tyrant is in a better position to feed his desires, and, second, because he is everywhere surrounded and watched by his enemies, and becomes at first their prisoner and at last their victim. [Sounds like Trump to me!]
"The best and most just of all rulers are those who are most reluctant to govern, while the worst and most unjust are those who are most eager. Therefore, if the state is to be well ordered, it must offer another and better life than that of ruler, for only then will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in #virtue and #wisdom, which are the true blessings of life. And the only life that looks down upon the life of political ambition is that of true philosophy."
#ShipOfFools #Socialists #Philosophers #Autists? #JustSaying...
